Scottish council fined 13,500 following workers death

The comments follow the death of 35-year-old Stephen Welsh, an East Dunbartonshire Council employee, who was struck and fatally injured by a reversing waste recycling lorry. The accident happened on January 23, 2007 in Smeaton Terrace, Torrance (see letsrecycle.com story).

East Dunbartonshire Council was fined £13,500 at Glasgow Sheriff Court last Wednesday (April 15) after pleading guilty to a charge under Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work (etc) Act.
Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states:”It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”

As part of guidance published in 2005, entitled “Workplace transport safety”, the HSE claimed that collection routes should be laid out to make reversing unnecessary or, where unavoidable, be done in conjunction with a banksman wearing appropriate high visibility equipment.

The incident happened as the employee, who was working as a waste recycling collector, was run over by the council's waste recycling lorry during a reversing manoeuvre. The accident happened on a dull and frosty morning about 8.45 am in a cul-de-sac.

Commenting on the case, HSE Inspector Jean Edgar said: “Employers of waste collectors should ensure that their kerbside workers are fully trained to safely assist their drivers to reverse and avoid collision with pedestrians. A safe system of work should be drawn up setting out how communication and control between kerbside collectors and the driver can be reliably achieved.”

“I cannot stress enough, how challenging a work environment the streets of our towns and cities are for this important group of workers and how a simple mistake can have tragic consequences,” she added.

The verdict comes one week after the HSE claimed that the accident rate in the waste and recycling sector had decline by 15% since 2003/04, when figures for the industry peaked (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, in October 2008, the HSE said that the amount of injuries and fatalities caused by being hit by a moving vehicle had fallen from 11 to seven between 2007 and 2008 but were still concerned by the overall performance of the waste and recycling sector on the issue of safety (see letsrecycle.com story).